1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cradle for an information apparatus, a cradle for a digital camera and a camera system, and in particular, to the cradle and the camera system suitable for a low-priced digital camera of which image display function, removable media and so on are omitted.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 6-44050 discloses a configuration wherein a first electronic apparatus such as a portable telephone and a second electronic apparatus equivalent to a cradle thereof are connected. Not only in the field of the portable telephone but also in the field of a digital still camera, a system for charging a battery in the camera and/or exchanging data between the camera and an external apparatus such as a personal computer by using the cradle is known.
In addition, many models of a low-priced digital still camera called a toy camera are released in recent years, and are broadly accepted by consumers as handily image-capturable camera. In general, this kind of digital still camera is manufactured by using an image-pickup circuit (approximately in common among the manufacturers) which has the number of pixels of a VGA or lower class and is almost general-purpose, and boldly low pricing thereof is implemented by omitting functions. For instance, it has a camera configuration wherein a removable medium for storing an image and a liquid crystal monitor for image display and so on are omitted.
In the case of the digital still camera of which removable medium is omitted as described above, however, the number of image-capturable frames (the number of capturable images) is limited since the images are stored in a memory built into the camera (internal memory). In addition, as a liquid crystal monitor for image display is omitted, the user cannot confirm the recorded image with the camera itself, so that convenience of the digital still camera is sacrificed.